The diverse and well-studied order Primates serves as an excellent model for understanding the evolution of acoustic communication among mammals. Over the past 60 million years, primates have evolved into more than 300 extant species that range from nocturnal to diurnal, arboreal ...MORE ⇓

The diverse and well-studied order Primates serves as an excellent model for understanding the evolution of acoustic communication among mammals. Over the past 60 million years, primates have evolved into more than 300 extant species that range from nocturnal to diurnal, arboreal to terrestrial, and solitary to groups of thousands, and they range in body mass from the 30-g pygmy mouse lemur (Microcebus myoxinus) to the 175-kg eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri). Nonhuman primates vary in their auditory sensitivity and perceptual capabilities and emit a wide range of often complex vocalizations. Some aspects of primate audition and vocalizations have been related to each other and/or phylogeny, anatomy, and ecology, but many aspects have yet to be fully understood. The integration of anatomical and behavioral data on acoustic communication, and the correlates thereof, have significant potential for reconstructing behavior in the fossil record, including that of humans. This volume presents a comprehensive review of nonhuman primate audition and vocal communication to bridge these closely related topics that are often addressed separately. The first section of the book is a discussion of primate sound production, reception, and perception, as well as habitat acoustics in the environmental settings occupied by primates in the wild. The second section focuses on vocal communication in extant primates, including consideration of spectral analyses of primate calls and the evolutionary relationships among hearing, vocal communication, and human language. The goal for this comprehensive approach is to provide new insights into these related topics.

A comprehensive overview of an interdisciplinary approach to robotics that takes direct inspiration from the developmental and learning phenomena observed in children's cognitive development.
Developmental robotics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics that is directly inspired by the developmental principles and mechanisms observed in children's cognitive development. It builds on the idea that the robot, using a set of intrinsic developmental ...MORE ⇓

A comprehensive overview of an interdisciplinary approach to robotics that takes direct inspiration from the developmental and learning phenomena observed in children's cognitive development.
Developmental robotics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to robotics that is directly inspired by the developmental principles and mechanisms observed in children's cognitive development. It builds on the idea that the robot, using a set of intrinsic developmental principles regulating the real-time interaction of its body, brain, and environment, can autonomously acquire an increasingly complex set of sensorimotor and mental capabilities. This volume, drawing on insights from psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and robotics, offers the first comprehensive overview of a rapidly growing field.
After providing some essential background information on robotics and developmental psychology, the book looks in detail at how developmental robotics models and experiments have attempted to realize a range of behavioral and cognitive capabilities. The examples in these chapters were chosen because of their direct correspondence with specific issues in child psychology research; each chapter begins with a concise and accessible overview of relevant empirical and theoretical findings in developmental psychology. The chapters cover intrinsic motivation and curiosity; motor development, examining both manipulation and locomotion; perceptual development, including face recognition and perception of space; social learning, emphasizing such phenomena as joint attention and cooperation; language, from phonetic babbling to syntactic processing; and abstract knowledge, including models of number learning and reasoning strategies. Boxed text offers technical and methodological details for both psychology and robotics experiments.

My previous two books were long and academic in tone. This book is shorter (under 60,000 words) and more likely to be read by busy people (I hope).
The Origins of Language: A Slim Guide offers a concise and accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language. Non-human animals communicate in simple ways: they may be able to form simple concepts, to feel some limited empathy for others, ...MORE ⇓

My previous two books were long and academic in tone. This book is shorter (under 60,000 words) and more likely to be read by busy people (I hope).
The Origins of Language: A Slim Guide offers a concise and accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language. Non-human animals communicate in simple ways: they may be able to form simple concepts, to feel some limited empathy for others, to cooperate to some extent, and to engage in mind-reading. Human language, however, is characterized by its ability to efficiently express a wide range of subtle and complex meanings. After the first simple beginnings, human language underwent an explosion of complexity, leading to the very complicated systems of grammar and pronunciation found in modern languages.
Professor Hurford looks at the very varied aspects of this evolution, covering human prehistory; the relation between instinct and learning; biology and culture; trust, altruism, and cooperation; animal thought; human and non-human vocal anatomy; the meanings and forms of the first words; and the growth of complex systems of grammar and pronunciation. Written by an internationally recognized expert in the field, it draws on a number of disciplines besides linguistics, including philosophy, neuroscience, genetics, and animal behaviour, and will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in language origins and evolution.

How did social communication evolve in primates? In this volume, primatologists, linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers of science systematically analyze how their specific disciplines demarcate the research questions and methodologies involved in the ...MORE ⇓

How did social communication evolve in primates? In this volume, primatologists, linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists and philosophers of science systematically analyze how their specific disciplines demarcate the research questions and methodologies involved in the study of the evolutionary origins of social communication in primates in general, and in humans in particular. In the first part of the book, historians and philosophers of science address how the epistemological frameworks associated with primate communication and language evolution studies have changed over time, and how these conceptual changes affect our current studies on the subject matter. In the second part, scholars provide cutting-edge insights into the various means through which primates communicate socially in both natural and experimental settings. They examine the behavioral building blocks by which primates communicate, and they analyze what the cognitive requirements are for displaying communicative acts. Chapters highlight cross-fostering and language experiments with primates, primate mother-infant communication, the display of emotions and expressions, manual gestures and vocal signals, joint attention, intentionality and theory of mind. The primary focus of the third part is on how these various types of communicative behavior possibly evolved, and how they can be understood as evolutionary precursors to human language. Leading scholars analyze how both manual and vocal gestures gave way to mimetic and imitational protolanguage, and how the latter possibly transitioned into human language. In the final part, we turn to the hominin lineage, and anthropologists, archeologists and linguists investigate what the necessary neurocognitive, anatomical and behavioral features are in order for human language to evolve, and how language differs from other forms of primate communication.

Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential thinkers of our time, yet his views are often misunderstood. In this previously unpublished series of interviews, Chomsky discusses his iconoclastic and important ideas concerning language, human nature and politics. In ...

The fascinating question of the origins and evolution of language has been drawing a lot of attention recently, not only from linguists, but also from anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and brain scientists. This groundbreaking book explores the cultural side of ...

This book explains how the human brain evolved to make language possible and how cultural evolution took over from biological evolution during the transition from basic forms of communication to fully fledged languages. Basing his argument on the latest research in ...

A fascinating, far-reaching study of how our species' innate capacity for culture altered the course of our social and evolutionary history. A unique trait of the human species is that our personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews are shaped by an accident of birthnamely, the ...MORE ⇓

A fascinating, far-reaching study of how our species' innate capacity for culture altered the course of our social and evolutionary history. A unique trait of the human species is that our personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews are shaped by an accident of birthnamely, the ...

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution presents critical accounts of every aspect of the field. The book's five parts are devoted to insights from comparative animal behaviour; the biology of language evolution (anatomy, genetics, and neurology); the prehistory of language ...MORE ⇓

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution presents critical accounts of every aspect of the field. The book's five parts are devoted to insights from comparative animal behaviour; the biology of language evolution (anatomy, genetics, and neurology); the prehistory of language (when and why did language evolve?); the development of a linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change. Research on language evolution has burgeoned over the last three decades. Interdisciplinary activity has produced fundamental advances in the understanding of language evolution and in human and primate evolution more generally. This book presents a wide-ranging summation of work in all the disciplines involved. It highlights the links in different lines of research, shows what has been achieved to date, and considers the most promising directions for future work.

The Recursive Mind challenges the commonly held notion that language is what makes us uniquely human. In this compelling book, Michael Corballis argues that what distinguishes us in the animal kingdom is our capacity for recursion: the ability to embed our thoughts ...

The next century will see more than half of the world's 6,000 languages become extinct, and most of these will disappear without being adequately recorded. Written by one of the leading figures in language documentation, this fascinating book explores what humanity ...

Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the ...MORE ⇓

Language, more than anything else, is what makes us human. It appears that no communication system of equivalent power exists elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Any normal human child will learn a language based on rather sparse data in the surrounding world, while even the brightest chimpanzee, exposed to the same environment, will not. Why not How, and why, did language evolve in our species and not in others Since Darwin's theory of evolution, questions about the origin of language have generated a rapidly-growing scientific literature, stretched across a number of disciplines, much of it directed at specialist audiences. The diversity of perspectives from linguistics, anthropology, speech science, genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology can be bewildering. Tecumseh Fitch cuts through this vast literature, bringing together its most important insights to explore one of the biggest unsolved puzzles of human history.

- Explores a fascinating puzzle - how did we humans develop the ability to speak? - Unlike previous books, it combines insights from many different disciplines - A useful glossary of terms helps readers from all backgrounds understand the concepts

This book considers the evolution of the grammatical structure of words in the more general contexts of human evolution and the origins of language. The consensus in many fields is that language is well designed for its purpose, and became so either through natural selection or ...MORE ⇓

This book considers the evolution of the grammatical structure of words in the more general contexts of human evolution and the origins of language. The consensus in many fields is that language is well designed for its purpose, and became so either through natural selection or by virtue of non-biological constraints on how language must be structured. Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy argues that in certain crucial respects language is not optimally designed. This can be seen, he suggests, in the existence of not one but two kinds of grammatical organization - syntax and morphology - and in the morphological and morpho-phonological complexity which leads to numerous departures from the one-form-one-meaning principle.

This field of research examines how embodied and situated agents, such as robots, evolve language and thus communicate with each other. This book is a comprehensive survey of the research in this emerging field.

The contributions explain the theoretical and methodological ...MORE ⇓

This field of research examines how embodied and situated agents, such as robots, evolve language and thus communicate with each other. This book is a comprehensive survey of the research in this emerging field.

The contributions explain the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field, and then illustrate the scientific and technological potentials and promising research directions. The book also provides descriptions of research experiments and related open software and hardware tools, allowing the reader to gain a practical knowledge of the topic.

The book will be of interest to scientists and undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of cognition, artificial life, artificial intelligence and linguistics.

Examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. This work looks at such themes as: natural selection in language; the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution; multilingualism and ...MORE ⇓

Examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. This work looks at such themes as: natural selection in language; the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution; multilingualism and language contact; and, language birth and language death.

Origin and Evolution of Languages has a strong interdisciplinary flavour designed to highlight the true complexity of the debates in the field. Many of the models and theories conjectured can only receive their validation from a convergence of arguments developed across ...MORE ⇓

Origin and Evolution of Languages has a strong interdisciplinary flavour designed to highlight the true complexity of the debates in the field. Many of the models and theories conjectured can only receive their validation from a convergence of arguments developed across disciplines. The book underscores this dimension by including contribution from disciplines that have been wary, traditionally, of extending beyond their borders: linguistics (different branches thereof), philosophy, history and prehistory, archaeology, anthropology, genetics, computer-modelling. The presentation is intended to encompass both the agreements and disjunctures characteristic of the field and insisted on laying open propositions that clearly differ from, possibly even enter into contradiction with one another. While several teams of researchers active in the fields of genetics, linguistics, anthropology and archaeology have come up with new proposals in favor of the `New Synthesis,' many competing hypotheses and models continue to be explored in areal linguistics, language contact, wave-like diffusion. On the anthropological scene, criticisms of the monogenetic model have set up new debates and counter-arguments. Approaching the issue of the origin and evolution of human languages within a Darwinian paradigm remains problematic. On the archaeological scene, not all reconstructions are proving compatible with current models for the circulation of techniques, myths and cultures. On the linguistic scene, raising again the issue of the origin / evolution of humankind and of languages in an evolutionary, cognitive, social and cultural perspective or in terms of generational transmission and acquisition, may induce a reconsideration of linguistic theories in search of universals as well as most theories of change and variation. All contributors are world-renowned experts in their domain.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. -- Serge Cleuziou, Jean Paul Demoule, Pierre Encreve, Bernard Laks Part One : ab originem2. Genetic evolution and the evolution of languages. -- L.L.Cavalli-Sforza 3. Languages, genes, and prehistory, with special reference to europe. -- Bernard Comrie 4. Poor design features in language as clues to its prehistory. -- Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy 5. What can we learn about the earliest human language by comparing languages known today? -- Lyle Campbell 6. Conceptualization, communication, and the origins of grammar. -- Frederick J. Newmeyer 7. The origin of language as a product of the evolution of modern cognition. -- Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner Part Two : post originem8. Genetics and language: comparatism and genealogy in perspective. -- Bernard Laks 9. Simulating the expansion of farming and the differentiation of european languages. -- Domenico Parisi, Francesco Antinucci, Francesco Natale, Federico Cecconi 10. On Renfrew's hypothesis of the near-eastern origins of the indo-european urheimat. -- Jean-Paul Demoule 11. New perspectives on the origin of languages. -- Merrit Ruhlen 12. Linguistic history and computational cladistics. -- Don Ringe and Tandy Warnow 13. What do creoles and pidgins tell us about the evolution of languages? -- Salikoko S. Mufwene 14. Linguistics and archeology. -- Serge Cleuziou

Human communication is grounded in fundamentally cooperative, even shared, intentions. In this original and provocative account of the evolutionary origins of human communication, Michael Tomasello connects the fundamentally cooperative structure of human communication (initially ...MORE ⇓

Human communication is grounded in fundamentally cooperative, even shared, intentions. In this original and provocative account of the evolutionary origins of human communication, Michael Tomasello connects the fundamentally cooperative structure of human communication (initially discovered by Paul Grice) to the especially cooperative structure of human (as opposed to other primate) social interaction.

Tomasello argues that human cooperative communication rests on a psychological infrastructure of shared intentionality (joint attention, common ground), evolved originally for collaboration and culture more generally. The basic motives of the infrastructure are helping and sharing: humans communicate to request help, inform others of things helpfully, and share attitudes as a way of bonding within the cultural group. These cooperative motives each created different functional pressures for conventionalizing grammatical constructions. Requesting help in the immediate you-and-me and here-and-now, for example, required very little grammar, but informing and sharing required increasingly complex grammatical devices.

Drawing on empirical research into gestural and vocal communication by great apes and human infants (much of it conducted by his own research team), Tomasello argues further that humans' cooperative communication emerged first in the natural gestures of pointing and pantomiming. Conventional communication, first gestural and then vocal, evolved only after humans already possessed these natural gestures and their shared intentionality infrastructure along with skills of cultural learning for creating and passing along jointly understood communicative conventions. Challenging the Chomskian view that linguistic knowledge is innate, Tomasello proposes instead that the most fundamental aspects of uniquely human communication are biological adaptations for cooperative social interaction in general and that the purely linguistic dimensions of human communication are cultural conventions and constructions created by and passed along within particular cultural groups.

This book explores the origin and evolution of speech. The human speech system is in a league of its own in the animal kingdom and its possession dwarfs most other evolutionary achievements. During every second of speech we unconsciously use about 225 distinct muscle actions. To ...MORE ⇓

This book explores the origin and evolution of speech. The human speech system is in a league of its own in the animal kingdom and its possession dwarfs most other evolutionary achievements. During every second of speech we unconsciously use about 225 distinct muscle actions. To investigate the evolutionary origins of this prodigious ability, Peter MacNeilage draws on work in linguistics, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and animal behaviour. He puts forward a neo-Darwinian account of speech as a process of descent in which ancestral vocal capabilities became modified in response to natural selection pressures for more efficient communication. His proposals include the crucial observation that present-day infants learning to produce speech reveal constraints that were acting on our ancestors as they invented new words long ago. This important and original investigation integrates the latest research on modern speech capabilities, their acquisition, and their neurobiology, including the issues surrounding the cerebral hemispheric specialization for speech. It will interest a wide range of readers in cognitive, neuro-, and evolutionary science, as well as all those seeking to understand the nature and evolution of speech and human communication.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction1. Background: The Intellectual Context 2. Getting to the Explanation of Speech Part 2 Speech and its origin: The Frame/Content Theory3. The Nature of Modern Hominid Speech 4. Speech in Deep TIme: How Speech Got Started Part 3 The Relation Between Ontogeny and Phylogeny5. Ontogeny and Phylogeny 1: The Frame Stage 6. Ontogeny and Phylogeny 2: The Frame/Content Stage 7. The Origin of Words: How Frame-Stage Patterns Acquired Meanings Part 4 Brain Organization and the Evolution of Speech8. Evolution of brain Organization for Speech: Background 9. A Dual Brain System for the Frame/Content Mode 10. Evolution of Cerebral Hemispheric Specialization for Speech Part 5 The Frame/Content Theory and Generative Linguistics11. Generative Phonology and the Origin of Speech 12. The Generative Approach to Speech Acquisition Part 6 A Perspective on Speech From Manual Evolution13. An Amodal Phonology? Implications of the Existence of Sign Language Part 7 Last Things14. Ultimate Causes: Genes and Memes 15. Conclusions

1. Introduction 2. An Outline of Grammatical Evolution 3. Some Cognitive Abilities of Animals 4. On Pidgins and Other Restricted Linguistic Systems 5. Clause Subordination 6. On The Rise of Recursion 7. Early Language

In this, the first of two ground-breaking volumes on the nature of language in the light of the way it evolved, James Hurford looks at how the world first came to have a meaning in the minds of animals and how in humans this meaning eventually came to be expressed as language. He ...MORE ⇓

In this, the first of two ground-breaking volumes on the nature of language in the light of the way it evolved, James Hurford looks at how the world first came to have a meaning in the minds of animals and how in humans this meaning eventually came to be expressed as language. He reviews a mass of evidence to show how close some animals, especially primates and more especially apes, are to the brink of human language. Apes may not talk to us but they construct rich cognitive representations of the world around them, and here, he shows, are the evolutionary seeds of abstract thought - the means of referring to objects, the memory of events, even elements of the propositional thinking philosophers have hitherto reserved for humans. What then, he asks, is the evolutionary path between the non-speaking minds of apes and our own speaking minds? Why don't apes communicate the richness of their thoughts to each other? Why do humans alone have a unique disposition to reveal their thoughts in complex detail? Professor Hurford searches a wide range of evidence for the answers to these central questions, including degrees of trust, the role of hormones, the ability to read minds, and the willingness to cooperate.

Expressing himself congenially in consistently colloquial language the author builds up a vivid picture of how mind, language, and meaning evolved over millions of years. His book is a landmark contribution to the understanding of linguistic and thinking processes, and the fullest account yet published of the evolution of language and communication.

Jean-Louis Dessalles explores the co-evolutionary paths of biology, culture, and the great human edifice of language, linking the evolution of the language to the general evolutionary history of humankind. He provides searchingly original answers to such fundamental paradoxes as ...MORE ⇓

Jean-Louis Dessalles explores the co-evolutionary paths of biology, culture, and the great human edifice of language, linking the evolution of the language to the general evolutionary history of humankind. He provides searchingly original answers to such fundamental paradoxes as to whether we acquired our greatest gift in order to talk or so as to be able to think, and as to why human beings should, as experience constantly confirms, contribute information for the well-being of others at their own expense and for no apparent gain: which if this is one of language's main functions appears to make its possession, in Darwinian terms, a disadvantage. Dr Dessalles looks for solutions in the early history of human species and considers the degree to which language evolved as a means of choosing profitable coalition partners and maximizing individual success within a competitive social environment.

The author opens with a discussion of the differences between animal and human communication and the biological foundations of language. He looks at the physiological preconditions for language evolution and the early evolution of meaning and communication. He then embarks on an important and original account of the natural history of conversation. Here he considers the roles of language in supporting social cohesion and information exchange.

This challenging and original account will appeal to all those interested in the origins of language and the evolution of human behaviour.

Table of Contents

Part I The Place of Language in Human Evolutionary History1. Animal and Human Communication 2. Culture, Languages, and Language 3. The Biological Roots of Language 4. Misapprehensions about the Origins of Language 5. Language as an Evolutionary Curiosity 6. The Local Optimality of Language Part II The Functional Anatomy of Speech7. Putting Sounds Together 8. Protolanguage 9. The Mechanics of Syntax 10. Syntax and Meaning 11. The Structure of Meanings 12. The Emergence of Meaning Part III The Ethology of Language13. Conversation Behaviour 14. Language as Information 15. The Birth of Argumentation 16. Language as an Evolutionary Paradox 17. The Political Origins of Language 18. Epilogue

This volume brings together studies from diverse disciplines, showing how they can inform and stimulate each other. It includes work in linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and computer science. New empirical work is reported on both human and animal communication, ...MORE ⇓

This volume brings together studies from diverse disciplines, showing how they can inform and stimulate each other. It includes work in linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and computer science. New empirical work is reported on both human and animal communication, using some novel techniques that have only recently become workable.

A principal theme is the importance of studies involving artificial agents, their contribution to the body of knowledge on the emergence of communication and language, and the role of simulations in exploring some of the most significant issues. A number of different synthetic systems are described, showing how communication can emerge in natural and artificial organisms. Theories on the origins of language are supported by computational and robotic experiments.

Worldwide contributors to this volume include some of the most influential figures in the field, delivering essential reading for researchers and graduates in the area, as well as providing fascinating insights for a wider readership.

Contents

Introduction

Current Work and Open Problems: A Roadmap for Research into the Emergence of Communication and Language by Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Caroline Lyon, and Angelo Cangelosi

The original idea for this book came from the successful 2nd International Symposium on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication (EELC '05) held in Hatfield, UK, in April 2005. Grants from the British Academy and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in support of this workshop are gratefully acknowledged.

A compelling look at the quest for the origins of human language from an accomplished linguist. Language is a distinctly human gift. However, because it leaves no permanent trace, its evolution has long been a mystery, and it is only in the last fifteen years that we have begun ...MORE ⇓

A compelling look at the quest for the origins of human language from an accomplished linguist. Language is a distinctly human gift. However, because it leaves no permanent trace, its evolution has long been a mystery, and it is only in the last fifteen years that we have begun to understand how language came into being. ``The First Word'' is the compelling story of the quest for the origins of human language. The book follows two intertwined narratives. The first is an account of how language developed, how the random and layered processes of evolution wound together to produce a talking animal: us. The second addresses why scientists are at last able to explore the subject. For more than a hundred years, language evolution was considered a scientific taboo. Kenneally focuses on figures like Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, along with cognitive scientists, biologists, geneticists, and animal researchers, in order to answer the fundamental question: Is language a uniquely human phenomenon? ``The First Word'' is the first book of its kind written for a general audience. Sure to appeal to fans of Steven Pinker's ``The Language Instinct'' and Jared Diamond's ``Guns, Germs, and Steel,'' Kenneally's book is set to join them as a seminal account of human history.

Mirror neurons may hold the brain's key to social interaction - each coding not only a particular action or emotion but also the recognition of that action or emotion in others. The Mirror System Hypothesis adds an evolutionary arrow to the story - from the mirror system for hand ...MORE ⇓

Mirror neurons may hold the brain's key to social interaction - each coding not only a particular action or emotion but also the recognition of that action or emotion in others. The Mirror System Hypothesis adds an evolutionary arrow to the story - from the mirror system for hand actions, shared with monkeys and chimpanzees, to the uniquely human mirror system for language. In this volume, written to be accessible to a wide audience, experts from child development, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, primatology and robotics present and analyze the mirror system and show how studies of action and language can illuminate each other. Topics discussed in the fifteen chapters include: What do chimpanzees and humans have in common? Does the human capability for language rest on brain mechanisms shared with other animals? How do human infants acquire language? What can be learned from imaging the human brain? How are sign- and spoken-language related? Will robots learn to act and speak like humans?

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Part I. Two Perspectives: 1. The mirror system hypothesis on the linkage of action and languages Michael Arbib 2. The origin and evolution of language: a plausible, strong-AI account Jerry Hobbs Part II. Brain, Evolution and Comparative Analysis: 3. Cognition, imitation and culture in the great apes Craig Stanford 4. The signer as an embodied mirror neuron: neural systems underlying sign language and action Karen Emmorey 5. Neural homologies and the grounding of neurolinguistics Michael Arbib and Mihail Bota Part III. Dynamical Systems in Action and Language: 6. Dynamical systems: brain, body and imitation Stefan Schaal 7. The role of vocal tract gestural action units in understanding the evolution of phonology Louis Goldstein, Dani Byrd and Elliot Saltzman 8. Lending a helping hand to hearing: a motor theory of speech perception Jeremy I. Skipper, Howard C. Nusbaum and Steven L. Small Part IV. From Mirror System to Syntax and Theory of Mind: 9. Attention and the minimal subscene Laurent Itti and Michael Arbib 10. Action verbs, argument structure constructions, and the mirror neuron system David Kemmerer 11. Linguistic corpora and theory of mind Andrew Gordon Part V. Development of Action and Language: 12. The development of grasping and the mirror system Erhan Oztop, Nina Bradley and Michael Arbib 13. Development of goal-directed imitation, object manipulation and language in humans and robots Iona D. Goga and Aude Billard 14. Affordances, effectivities and the mirror system in child development Patricia Zukow-Goldring 15. Implications of mirror neurons for the ontogeny and phylogeny of cultural processes: the examples of tools and language Patricia Greenfield.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 1. The Mark of Evolution 2. Primitive and Derived Features of Language 3. The Singularity of Speech 4. The Neural Bases of Language 5. Motor Control and the Evolution of Language 6. The Gift of Tongue 7. Linguistic ...MORE ⇓

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 1. The Mark of Evolution 2. Primitive and Derived Features of Language 3. The Singularity of Speech 4. The Neural Bases of Language 5. Motor Control and the Evolution of Language 6. The Gift of Tongue 7. Linguistic Issues 8. Where We Might Go

This monograph explores the interplay between learning and evolution in the context of linguistic systems. For several decades now, the process of language acquisition has been conceptualized as a procedure that maps lin- guistic experience onto linguistic knowledge. If linguistic knowledge is char- acterized in computational terms as a formal grammar and the mapping procedure is algorithmic, this conceptualization admits computational and mathematical modes of inquiry into language learning. Indeed, such a view is implicit in most modern approaches to the subject in linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence.

Now learning (acquisition) is the mechanism by which language is trans- mitted from old speakers to new. Therefore, the evolution of language over generational time in linguistic populations will depend upon the learning procedure used by the individuals in it. Yet the interplay between learn- ing by the individual and evolution of the population can be quite subtle. We need tools to reason about the phenomena and elucidate the precise na- ture of the relationships involved. To this end, this monograph presents a framework in which to conduct such an analysis.

Speech is the principal supporting medium of language. In this book Pierre-Yves Oudeyer considers how spoken language first emerged. He presents an original and integrated view of the interactions between self-organization and natural selection, reformulates questions about the ...MORE ⇓

Speech is the principal supporting medium of language. In this book Pierre-Yves Oudeyer considers how spoken language first emerged. He presents an original and integrated view of the interactions between self-organization and natural selection, reformulates questions about the origins of speech, and puts forward what at first sight appears to be a startling proposal - that speech can be spontaneously generated by the coupling of evolutionarily simple neural structures connecting perception and production. He explores this hypothesis by constructing a computational system to model the effects of linking auditory and vocal motor neural nets. He shows that a population of agents which used holistic and unarticulated vocalizations at the outset are inexorably led to a state in which their vocalizations have become discrete, combinatorial, and categorized in the same way by all group members. Furthermore, the simple syntactic rules that have emerged to regulate the combinations of sounds exhibit the fundamental properties of modern human speech systems.

Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the student or researcher who prefers solid data and well-supported conclusions, over speculative scenarios. Much that has ...MORE ⇓

Sverker Johansson has written an unusual book on language origins, with its emphasis on empirical evidence rather than theory-building. This is a book for the student or researcher who prefers solid data and well-supported conclusions, over speculative scenarios. Much that has been written on the origins of language is characterized by hypothesizing largely unconstrained by evidence. But empirical data do exist, and the purpose of this book is to integrate and review the available evidence from all relevant disciplines, not only linguistics but also, e.g., neurology, primatology, paleoanthropology, and evolutionary biology. The evidence is then used to constrain the multitude of scenarios for language origins, demonstrating that many popular hypotheses are untenable. Among the issues covered: (1) Human evolutionary history, (2) Anatomical prerequisites for language, (3) Animal communication and ape 'language', (4) Mind and language, (5) The role of gesture, (6) Innateness, (7) Selective advantage of language, (8) Proto-language.

Humans never run out of things to say. We explain, we cajole, we gossip, and we flirt--all with the help of language. But how in the space of several million years did we evolve from an ordinary primate that that could not talk to the strange human primate that can't shut up? In ...MORE ⇓

Humans never run out of things to say. We explain, we cajole, we gossip, and we flirt--all with the help of language. But how in the space of several million years did we evolve from an ordinary primate that that could not talk to the strange human primate that can't shut up? In this fascinating, thought-provoking book, Robbins Burling presents the most convincing account of the origins of language ever published, shedding new light on how speech affects the way we think, behave, and relate to each other, and offering us a deeper understanding of the nature of language itself. Burling argues that comprehension, rather than production, was the driving force behind the evolution of language--we could understand words before we could produce them. As he develops this insight, he investigates the first links between signs, sounds, and meanings and explores the beginnings of vocabulary and grammar. He explains what the earliest forms of communication are likely to have been, how they worked, and why they were deployed, suggesting that when language began it was probably much more dependent on words like 'poke' or 'whoosh,' words whose sounds have a close association with what they refer to. Only gradually did language develop the immense vocabulary it has today. Burling also examines the qualities of mind and brain needed to support the operations of language and the selective advantages they offered those able to use them. Written in a crystal-clear style, constantly enlivened by flashes of wit and humor, here is the definitive account on the birth of language.

Table of Contents

1. In The Beginning 2. Smiles, Winks, and Words 3. Truths and Lies 4. The Mind and Language 5. Signs and Symbols 6. Icons Gained and Icons Lost 7. From A Few Sounds To Many Words 8. Syntax: Wired and Learned 9. Step By Step To Grammar 10. Power, Gossip, and Seduction 11. What Has Language Done To Us?

1. Introduction. PART I Evolution of Speech and Speech Sounds: How did spoken language
emerge?. Introduction to Part I: How did links between perception and production emerge for
spoken language?. 2. The Mirror System Hypothesis: How did protolanguage evolve?. 3. ...

The propensity to make music is the most mysterious, wonderful, and neglected feature of humankind: this is where Steven Mithen began, drawing together strands from archaeology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience--and, of course, musicology--to explain why we ...

This book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the ``biolinguistic approach.'' A wide range of areas are investigated and reviewed by specialists: the micro-parametric theory of syntax, models of language ...MORE ⇓

This book provides a current and interdisciplinary overview of work on the biology of language - what is sometimes called the ``biolinguistic approach.'' A wide range of areas are investigated and reviewed by specialists: the micro-parametric theory of syntax, models of language acquisition and historical change, dynamical systems in language, genetics of populations, pragmatics of discourse, language neurology, genetic disorders of language, sign language, and evolution of language.

The search for origins of communication in a wide variety of species including humans is rapidly becoming a thoroughly interdisciplinary enterprise. In this volume, scientists engaged in the fields of evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental ...

In this groundbreaking book, Tomasello presents a comprehensive usage-based theory of language acquisition. Drawing together a vast body of empirical research in cognitive science, linguistics, and developmental psychology, Tomasello demonstrates that we don' ...

It is a simple observation that children make mistakes when they learn a language. Yet, to the trained eye, these mistakes are far from random; in fact, they closely resemble perfectly grammatical utterances by adults--who speak other languages. This type of error analysis ...MORE ⇓

It is a simple observation that children make mistakes when they learn a language. Yet, to the trained eye, these mistakes are far from random; in fact, they closely resemble perfectly grammatical utterances by adults--who speak other languages. This type of error analysis suggests a novel view of language learning: children are born with a fixed set of hypotheses about language--Chomsky's Universal Grammar--and these hypotheses compete to match the child's ambient language in a Darwinian fashion. The book presents evidence for this perspective from the study of children's words and grammar, and how language changes over time.

The leading scholars in the rapidly growing field of language evolution give readable accounts of their theories on the origins of language and reflect on the most important current issues and debates. As well as providing a guide to their own published research ...

This book is really two books, which do not communicate with each other once one gets past the editor's introduction in chapter 1. The chapters by Worden, Batali, Kirby, and Hurford (see Table 1), whom I shall refer to collectively as WBKH, use computer simulation to ...

Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and related fields." Few books really deserve the cliche'this should be read by every researcher in the field,'" writes Steven ...MORE ⇓

Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and related fields." Few books really deserve the cliche'this should be read by every researcher in the field,'" writes Steven ...

Linguists, biological anthropologists, and cognitive scientists come together in this book to explore the origins and early evolution of phonology, syntax, and semantics. They consider the nature of pre-and proto-linguistic communication, the internal and external triggers that ...MORE ⇓

Linguists, biological anthropologists, and cognitive scientists come together in this book to explore the origins and early evolution of phonology, syntax, and semantics. They consider the nature of pre-and proto-linguistic communication, the internal and external triggers that ...

This book breaks the prevailing taboo and argues instead that linguistic features-speech sounds, grammatical distinctions and syntactic strategies-have followed an evolutionary course. Though variation exists and gratuitious changes can be found, an in-depth study ...

It is often said that speech is what distinguishes us from other animals. But are we all talk? What if language was bequeathed to us not by word of mouth, but as a hand-me-down? The notion that language evolved not from animal cries but from manual and facial gestures-- ...

This book is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of the computational models and methodologies used for studying the evolution and origin of language and communication. Comprising contributions from the most influential figures in the field, it presents and ...

This major new work explores the development of creoles and other new languages, focusing on the conceptual and methodological issues they raise for genetic linguistics. Written by an internationally renowned linguist, the book surveys a wide range of ...

A mainstay of functional linguistics has been the claim that linguistic elements and patterns that are frequently used in discourse become conventionalized as grammar. This book addresses the two issues that are basic to this claim: first, the question of what types of ...

This book addresses universal tendencies of human vowel systems from the point of view of self-organization. It uses computer simulations to show that the same universal tendencies found in human languages can be reproduced in a population of artificial agents. These agents learn ...MORE ⇓

This book addresses universal tendencies of human vowel systems from the point of view of self-organization. It uses computer simulations to show that the same universal tendencies found in human languages can be reproduced in a population of artificial agents. These agents learn and use vowels with human-like perception and production, using a learning algorithm that is cognitively plausible. The implications of these results for the evolution of language are then explored.

Human language is a weird communication system: it has more in common with birdsong than with the calls of other primates. Jean Aitchison explores the origins of human language and how it has evolved. She likens the search to a vast prehistoric jigsaw puzzle, in which ...

The Evolutionary Emergence of Language covers the origins and early evolution of language. Its main purpose is to synthesize current thinking on this topic, particularly from a standpoint in theoretical linguistics. It is suitable for students of human evolution, ...

This book is an entry into the fierce current debate among psycholinguists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary theorists about the nature and origins of human language. A prominent neuroscientist here takes up the Darwinian case, using data seldom considered by ...

How does language work, and how do we learn to speak? Why do languages change over time, and why do they have so many quirks and irregularities? In this original and totally entertaining book written in the same engaging style that illuminated his bestselling ...

To answer these questions, David Lightfoot looks closely at young children. A child develops
a grammar on exposure to some triggering experience. A small perturbation in the trigger may
entail a different grammar in the next population of speakers, with dramatic effects. This "" ... ...MORE ⇓

To answer these questions, David Lightfoot looks closely at young children. A child develops
a grammar on exposure to some triggering experience. A small perturbation in the trigger may
entail a different grammar in the next population of speakers, with dramatic effects. This "" ...

Function, Selection, and Innateness is a powerful demonstration of the value of looking at language as an adaptive system, which reaches the heart of debates in linguistics and cognitive science on the evolution and nature of language. Why are all languages alike in some ways, ...MORE ⇓

Function, Selection, and Innateness is a powerful demonstration of the value of looking at language as an adaptive system, which reaches the heart of debates in linguistics and cognitive science on the evolution and nature of language. Why are all languages alike in some ways, different in others? Why do languages change? How did they originate and evolve? Kirby argues these questions must be studied together. He combines functional and formal theories in order to develop a way of treating language as an adaptive system in which its communicative and formal roles have crucial and complimentary roles. He then uses computational models to show what universals emerge given a particular theory of language use or acquisition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 A Puzzle of Fit 2 The Impact of Processing on Word Order 3 Hierarchies and Competing Motivations 4 The Limits of Functional Adaptation 5 Innateness and Function in Linguistics 6 Conclusion

This book proposes a new theory of the origins of human language ability and presents an original account of the early evolution of language. It explains why humans are the only language-using animals, challenges the assumption that language is a consequence of ...

Grammar and Conceptualization documents some major developments in the theory of cognitive grammar during the last decade. By further articulating the framework and showing its application to numerous domains of linguistic structure, this book substantiates the ...

This is one of the first systematic attempts to bring language within the neo-Darwinian framework of modern evolutionary theory. Twenty-four coordinated essays by linguists, phoneticians, anthropologists, psychologists and cognitive scientists explore the origins of ...

What a big brain we have for all the small talk we make. It's an evolutionary riddle that at long last makes sense in this intriguing book about what gossip has done for our talkative species. Psychologist Robin Dunbar looks at gossip as an instrument of social order and ...

The human imagination never ceases to be captivated by the quest for its own roots. Who were our ancestors? In the evolutionary clash of brains and brawn, what was it that prevailed and made us, Homo sapiens, uniquely human? Today scientists cite language as the ...

Bound to become a classic and to stimulate debate and research, The Evolution of Communication looks at species in their natural environments as a way to begin to understand what the real units of analysis of communicating systems are, using arguments about design and function to ...MORE ⇓

Bound to become a classic and to stimulate debate and research, The Evolution of Communication looks at species in their natural environments as a way to begin to understand what the real units of analysis of communicating systems are, using arguments about design and function to illuminate both the origin and subsequent evolution of each system. It lights the way for a research program that seriously addresses the problem of how communication systems, including language, have been designed over the course of evolution.

Interdisciplinary, drawing on fields as diverse as molecular biology, linguistics, embryology, and population genetics

Accessible to anyone with an undergraduate training in the biological sciences ...MORE ⇓

First book to be written on the major transitions in evolution

Interdisciplinary, drawing on fields as diverse as molecular biology, linguistics, embryology, and population genetics

Accessible to anyone with an undergraduate training in the biological sciences

Written by leading theoretical biologists

During evolution there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies. This is the first book to discuss all these major transitions and their implications for our understanding of evolution. Clearly written and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book will be welcomed by students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 What is Life? 3 Chemical evolution 4 The evolution of templates 5 The chicken and egg problem 6 The origin of translation and the genetic code 7 The origin of protocells 8 The origin of eukaryotes 9 The origin of sex and the nature of species 10 Intragenomic conflict 11 Symbiosis 12 Development in simple organisms 13 Gene regulation and cell heredity 14 The development of spatial patterns 15 Development and evolution 16 The origins of societies 17 The origins of language

This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the ...MORE ⇓

This revolutionary book provides fresh answers to long-standing questions of human origins and consciousness. Drawing on his breakthrough research in comparative neuroscience, Terrence Deacon offers a wealth of insights into the significance of symbolic thinking: from the co-evolutionary exchange between language and brains over two million years of hominid evolution to the ethical repercussions that followed man's newfound access to other people's thoughts and emotions.

Informing these insights is a new understanding of how Darwinian processes underlie the brain's development and function as well as its evolution. In contrast to much contemporary neuroscience that treats the brain as no more or less than a computer, Deacon provides a new clarity of vision into the mechanism of mind. It injects a renewed sense of adventure into the experience of being human.

Drawing on work in linguistics, language acquisition, and computer science, Adele E. Goldberg proposes that grammatical constructions play a central role in the relation between the form and meaning of simple sentences. She demonstrates that the syntactic patterns ...

In this classic study, the world's leading expert on language and the mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about languages: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it envolved. With wit, erudition, and deft use ...MORE ⇓

In this classic study, the world's leading expert on language and the mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about languages: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it envolved. With wit, erudition, and deft use it everyday examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution like web spinning in spiders or sonar bats. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America.

This volume is the direct result of a conference in which a number of leading researchers from the fields of artificial intelligence and biology gathered to examine whether there was any ground to assume that a new AI paradigm was forming itself and what the essential ...

In the twentieth century, linguistics has been dominated by two paradigms-those of Saussure and Chomsky. In both these philosophies of linguistics, language change was left aside as an unsolvable mystery which challenged theoretical entirety. In On Language ...

Joan Bybee and her colleagues present a new theory of the evolution of grammar that links structure and meaning in a way that directly challenges most contemporary versions of generative grammar. This study focuses on the use and meaning of grammatical markers ...

Eve Clark argues for the centrality of the lexicon in language and language acquisition. She looks at the hypotheses children draw on about possible word meanings, and how they map their meanings onto forms. Starting with children's emerging knowledge of conventional ...

This work elucidates the structure and complexity of human language in terms of the mathematics of information and computation. It strengthens Chomsky's early work on the mathematics of language, with the advantages of a better understanding of language and ...

In this book, Lightfoot explores in some detail issues that he raised in an important recent article {Lightfoot, 1989). The main claim of that article and of this book is that the triggering evidence required to set the parameters of Universal Grammar (UG) should be degree-0, ...MORE ⇓

In this book, Lightfoot explores in some detail issues that he raised in an important recent article {Lightfoot, 1989). The main claim of that article and of this book is that the triggering evidence required to set the parameters of Universal Grammar (UG) should be degree-0, ...

Cheney and Seyfarth enter the minds of vervet monkeys and other primates to explore the nature of primate intelligence and the evolution of cognition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What Is It Like to be a Monkey? 2. Social Behavior 3. Social Knowledge 4. Vocal ...MORE ⇓

Cheney and Seyfarth enter the minds of vervet monkeys and other primates to explore the nature of primate intelligence and the evolution of cognition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What Is It Like to be a Monkey? 2. Social Behavior 3. Social Knowledge 4. Vocal Communication 5. What the Vocalizations of Monkeys Mean 6. Summarizing the Mental Representations of Vocalizations and Social Relationships 7. Deception 8. Attribution 9. Social and Nonsocial Intelligence 10. How Monkeys See the World >

In a stimulating synthesis of cognitive science, anthropology, and linguistics, Philip Lieberman tackles the fundamental questions of human nature: How and why are human beings so different from other species? Can the Darwinian theory of evolution explain ...

Language and Species presents the most detailed and well-documented scenario to date of the origins of language. Drawing on 'living linguistic fossils' such as 'ape talk,' the 'two-word' stage of small children, and pidgin languages, and on recent discoveries in ...MORE ⇓

Language and Species presents the most detailed and well-documented scenario to date of the origins of language. Drawing on 'living linguistic fossils' such as 'ape talk,' the 'two-word' stage of small children, and pidgin languages, and on recent discoveries in paleoanthropology, Bickerton shows how a primitive 'protolanguage' could have offered Homo erectus a novel ecological niche. He goes on to demonstrate how this protolanguage could have developed into the languages we speak today.

Abstract 1. This book is about a paradox in language acquisition. The paradox begins with a small linguistic puzzle: Why does" He gave them a book" sound natural, but" He donated them a book" sound odd? It is complicated by a fact about children's environmentthat ...

The motor theory is not only a theory of language origin and development but also a theory of current language function. Language is constructed on the basis of a previously existing complex system, the neural motor system. The motor system has been built up from a limited number ...MORE ⇓

The motor theory is not only a theory of language origin and development but also a theory of current language function. Language is constructed on the basis of a previously existing complex system, the neural motor system. The motor system has been built up from a limited number of primitive elements - units of motor action - which can be formed into more extended motor programs. The programs and procedures which evolved for the construction and execution of simple and sequential motor movements formed the basis of the programs and procedures going to form language. The development of the language capacity has resulted from the progressive establishment of new cross-modal or transfunctional neural linkages, cerebral reorganization in the sense that the interconnectedness of different brain regions concerned with what are usually considered distinct functions, has substantially increased. This extensive relation between language and the motor system is what one might reasonably expect, given the central role of the motor system in all behaviour and the essentially motor character of speech production, as the outcome of movements of the articulatory apparatus. The motor system is seen as the indispensable mediator between different modalities, and particularly between language and perception.

This is a textbook right in the thick of current interest in morphology. It proposes principles to predict properties previously considered arbitrary and brings together the psychological and the diachronic to explain the recurrent properties of morphological systems in terms of ...MORE ⇓

This is a textbook right in the thick of current interest in morphology. It proposes principles to predict properties previously considered arbitrary and brings together the psychological and the diachronic to explain the recurrent properties of morphological systems in terms of the ...

This book synthesizes much of the exciting recent research in the biology of language. Drawing on data from anatomy, neurophysiology, physiology, and behavioral biology, Lieberman develops a new approach to the puzzle of language, arguing that it is the result ...

In this influential study, Steven Pinker develops a new approach to the problem of language learning. Now reprinted with new commentary by the author, this classic work continues to be an indispensable resource in developmental psycholinguistics. Reviews of this book:" ...

To understand human evolution, we require, among other things, a theory describing the dynamics of culturally acquired phenotypes. In this book, Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman present a series of theoretical models that represent an important beginning toward such a theory.